Inspired by this.
Warning: may generate a lachrymosal responseā¦
What teacher(s) changed your life and how?
My Father
4 Likes
Jim McNaught-Davis. English literature teacher at St Vincentās school in Gosport.
I was 12, I guess, and full of ideas and energy but had no real direction or passions - except music and football.
I got moved up a set into JMDās class and all I knew was that he had a fierce reputation as a disciplinarian. If you went anywhere near his classes you would hear him shouting at some poor wretch that fell asleep or read aloud poorly.
He was obviously really well educated, very much left of centre politically yet had a plumby accent, so I have no real idea how he came to be working at a brand new school is a rough catchment in Gosport. Just really glad he did.
I remember him being tall and thin with a sharp, pointed face and nose and his head was topped by a mop of curly hair. When he looked at you he made you think he knew all the things youād done wrong. He wasnāt instantly nice or kind but you always knew where you stood with him.
We read a number of books in his class and my early memory was that of being scared to death that you might be asked to read to the class. But when we moved on to Animal Farm by George Orwell my life started to change.
You could feel the energy and love he had for the text and after just about every page he would stop and talk about the real life events that the allegorical Animal Farm hinted at. Again, you could sense his absolute love for it and politics in general.
I remember him hinting that he wasnāt supposed to be commenting on the rights or wrongs of political systems but he didnāt care because he felt it his duty to educate us. He made the text feel edgy and that you were being let into a world of grown-ups that you werenāt supposed to understand yet.
He ran a lunchtime reading club where he would introduce people to different books that were off the curriculum and we would all sit around talking about them. During these sessions, and seeing my.enjoyment of Orwell, he told me to read Wigan Pier and Down and out in Paris and London. The next week he lent me his own copy of the latter.
I read it and if Iām honest, it was talking about subjects that I didnāt really have the life experiences to fully understand. It took me ages to read it as I am a very slow reader and I know that he thought I wasnāt actually reading it. But I remember his clear excitement when I gave it back and asked him loads of questions about it. He really came alive and I was a favourite pupil of his from then on.
He didnāt immediately turn me into a politico, make me a literature scholar or drown me in kindness, but he gave me a lifelong love of reading and taught me the importance of politics, the power of the individual and how teachers can shape your life.
Iād love to buy him a beer - if heās still with us.
5 Likes
What kind of shirts did he wear? Just curious.
4 Likes
1. Mr Donnachie - Junior school years 2-3. Reason I first picked up a really bad guitar with an action like a cheese grater, and later let me borrow his rather nice Martin D18 for a school concertā¦ He was a great folk player and an inspiration to make school and life more than just about academic pursuits, but a more rounded set of interests
2. Mr Hamilton - Secondary school, German - was a a total Marxist. all your German lit was from the best Socialist writers, such as Heinrich Boll and the Swiss Max Frisch etcā¦ he also lent me his copy of Tresselās epic, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropistsā¦ so a marked influence on my early and subsequent politics
3. Mrs Jones - Secondary school, Biology - First real life view of female genitaliaā¦ true story, was about 14 /15 or so. We were doing field work on the beach one summer term, and most folks were in the beach wear. She was wearing a swimming costume with a cardigan on top, when she bent over to pick something up from the sandā¦ the cosy (cozie?) was a bit loose and hung a little low in the gusset, providing anyone behind with a clear viewā¦ She was a very good teacher and quite young (28-30ish), but for some reason, that day has stayed in my teenage memoryā¦ 
3 Likes
Yellow, true story, well they called it gold.
Do you think weāve traced the root cause of my sartorial (non)sense?
3 Likes
Like many of the best teachers, mine often confused me with his methods. I learnt from him that itās better to let young people discover for themselves and to learn even when they are unaware theyāre learning.
Heās passed away now but he didnāt just teach me stuff, he put on the path of being a man. I didnāt have a father figure in my life at that time. Me and my mum had just moved to a new town and it was a difficult period. I was bullied by some is the local boys and was lashing out and getting in trouble. I know my mum thought it would only end on one way. Anyway my teacher took me under his wing and offered to teach me martial arts. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. I was going to destroy those bullies. But it was weird. He got me painting his fence and washing his car. āWhat is this?ā I thought. Heās taking me for for a mug here. But, low and behold by the time I had finished my chores I was excellent at martial arts and even got a girlfriend. What a guy.
10 Likes
Just did a little wee
1 Like
None. Not a single one. They were all cunts. Talked me out of my dream
2 Likes
The only thing I can thank the cunt that was known as āfingersā Foster for was putting me off Latin
Going on a world tour with Gary Glitter is not an appropriate dream for a young boy
2 Likes
Thereās a film in there, somewhere.
Mostly, they were forgettable but a few had some influence. Janice Oram was an English Teacher at 6th Form who helped me out quite a bit and seemed to take an interest in me, despite the fact I was a bang average student, operating in a spectrum of mediocrity that was almost embarrassing. I certainly wouldnāt have passed my A level without her. Geoff Scutt was a languages teacher at secondary school with a fearsome reputation but was actually a top geezer when you got into the 4th and 5th years and helped a lazy bastard with a few one to oneās about work ethics. My tutor at 6th form was John Morton (who later went on to write for radio and TV) and he helped me out with a few confidence issues when i was a nipper.
You donāt half wax on.
1 Like
Iāve had some good teachers. All time faves have include be P.K. āMacā McBride, who me taught me real programming when I was around seventeen. @Korruptor will remember him too.
He once asked the pair of us āDo you know what COBOL stands for?ā, knowing we knew because we were in the midst of a programming course.
āCommon business-oriented languageā, I offer, knowing itās the right answer.
How wrong I was.
āNo, it stands for COmplete BOLlocksā
Mac was a dude.
And there was I, when I first coded in COBOL, after years of Pascal, Fortran and C coming up with my own meaning.
Complete Obsolete and Bollox Operating Language, itās the only sentence that works for me.
As for teachers, I was so smart and āon trackā at school that none really stood out for me. However my tutor at University, Professor Dunstan, really helped me when things werenāt going great. Lots of good advice and got me an industrial year placement working with ESA in the South of France, loved it and it set me up for a career in 'puters.
2 Likes
One of my most influential āteachersā was someone I wouldnāt ask to teach me shit. He did give me a valuable lesson though.
It is 1994. I am in one of my earliest classes which is shared by several courses and the lecture room is packed. Itās Computers 101, basically.
Our lecturer, a baby faced but already balding scouse lad, tried to tell a room full of 150 people that the reason software was so slow is because software companies were still coding to accommodate the original 8086.
As Obi Wan says, that might be true from a certain point of view. The chip architecture of the 486s of the day descended from it. He didnāt mean it that way,
The commercial reality was that hardware and software companies were working in lockstep to drive up the standards of both. Windows 95 wasnāt very far away.
So I stood up in a crowded lecture hall and gave him a precis of the above. I learned that day, more than ever, that people in positions of authority talk shit and very few people point it out.
2 Likes
Protected mode on the 386 changed everything.
I hope you mentioned that.
Well I am pleased for you all that you had such momentous mentors, but sorry, nothing comes close to a first view of a quality snatch.
4 Likes
You could be royalty.